quick fall reviews

Posted by prick

I’ve been watching quite a bit of fall television, even though I didn’t want to. There just seem to be a lot of shows I am interested in. Either that, or I am just hooked on silly drama.

That said, here’s my quick reviews of some shows I have seen…

Survivor: Guatemala
I like this season a lot. It might be that I can easily identify the tribes due to the recognixable faces of Bobby John and Steph, who were in last season and were brought back for this season. I like already knowing someone on each tribe, when usually I wouldn’t know anyone’s names until much later in the show. The setting is awesome and full of lots of dangerous critters.
Now, I have been hearing rumors that Jeff might be giving up the hosting gig to take over for Regis on the daytime show. It occured to me that the only way I would continue to watch the show is if Steph was the new host. Otherwise, I would watch the first episode with a new host and if I didn’t like it, I would officially give up on Survivor.

House
I got into this show last season and it captured my attention immediately. I love medical mysteries and I also really like when Brits speak with an American accent. The cast in this show is fantastic, I mean Omar Epps is in the show! You can’t go wrong with Omar Epps. Not much else to say about this show, other than to say it’s the shit.

Bones
Angel’s new show. Even though he’s a co-star. I like this show a lot, too. I feel bad for giving in to the FOX machine, but this show is just really well done. One of the best parts is seeing David in a role other than Angel. I mean, he even smiles sometimes! And he gets to work in the daylight! As far as I am concerned, this show is the beginning of his career. Towards the end of Angel, he was starting to lose his acting ability and I think that was just because the character was played-out. Now, he’s in a whole new role and he’s flourishing.

LOST
I only saw a few episodes of the first season, but I liked what I saw. What kept me from the show was just that I hadn’t seen it from the beginning. However, when I started to hear the ads for the new season, I got very interested. Then, I saw the hour-long recap show that was on before the premiere and knew I had to watch this season. I would still like to see season 1 in its entirety, but just from seeing the first 2 episodes, I am hooked. Great show, great cast, wonderful acting.

Surface
One of the many alien-invasion type shows. This one, however, seems more like a mini-series. Or, like a good movie idea that didn’t happen… oh, wait… it did happen, it was called The Abyss. In fact, it’s just like The Abyss, but it’s not set miles under the sea. Hyper-evolved sea mammals come to the surface and start fucking shit up. I likes. Not sure if I will stick with it, as it doesn’t have too much to offer, but I like it for now.

Invasion
Another alien show. This one centers around a hurricane and people seem to be getting infected with some kind of alien life that appeared in the eye of the storm. I like this one a little better than Surface because it’s really aliens in this one. The cast is really good and there are even some recognizable faces. I see a lot more potential with this one than with Surface. Only time will tell, though. I might just get completely sick of the whole alien invasion thing.

Criminal Minds
With the obvious lack of Dead Like Me in this new fall season, one might ask, “where can I get a Mandy Patinkin fix?” Well, my friends, your fix is waiting on CBS with his new show about serial killers. This show deals with the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI, which employs Mandy’s character. He’s essentially a profiler, but he seems to be a profiling genius who can accurately profile a killer with very little evidence. They draw on past serial killers and serial killer habits to solve the mystery of the week. Maybe it’s just that I love watching Mandy act that keeps my interest in this show, but I have a feeling it’ll do well. I’m just glad he got another gig after being fucked in the ass by MGM.

Too Late with Adam Carolla
Great idea… now he just needs a studio audience. What the hell, Comedy Central? You give a funny man a show and you don’t give him anyone to laugh at his jokes except for the crew? Or, maybe you just refuse to put microphones on the audience and that’s why it sounds like 3 people are behind the cameras, occasionally listening to what Adam says and maybe laughing out lod once and a while. Adam is one funny Italian (who looks like a Jew), but I’m not sure the live late-night call in show is the best place for him. I am anxiously awaiting the Adam Carolla Project on TLC (where he does home renovation) and also very excited at the possibility of him returning to morning radio as the west coast Stern replacement. Let’s all just hope he takes Dr. Drew with him and Ricky Rachtman doesn’t get the LoveLine gig back.

The Showbiz Show with David Spade
Hmmm… vaguely familiar. Oh! That’s right, this is just his celebrity bit from Weekend Update. Oh, you Comedy Central… you just get all your good ideas from SNL, don’t you? Okay show. He’s still rather annoying, but his writers are funny as hell. I’ll stick with it for a while.

There’s my reviews. If not for TiVo, I don’t know what I would do. :)

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take a hint

Posted by prick

“Mr. President, this job can’t be fun for you any more. There’s no more money to spend–you used up all of that. You can’t start another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Listen to your Mom. The cupboard’s bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one’s speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

Now it’s time to do what you’ve always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It’s time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you’re saying: there’s so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don’t. I know, I know. There’s a lot left to do. There’s a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You’ve performed so poorly I’m surprised that you haven’t given yourself a medal. You’re a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you’re just not lucky. I’m not saying you don’t love this country. I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: ‘Take a hint.'”

– Bill Maher

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Burning Man 2005

Posted by prick

This is a partial post I wrote, but never published.

My Burning Man adventure began well before leaving for the Playa. Per usual, there was the drama of who would make it out there and who would not. With many changes to the lineup of attendees, I reserved myself to focusing on getting ready and packing, regardless of who would be making it up to the Northern desert of Nevada. So, the preperations began. We rented a large 14′ moving truck, agreed to share that space with some nice folks from Long Beach and arranged to pick up their stuff before leaving. Tuesday morning, Amanda and I picked up the truck (with Asha’s kind help) and headed to the LBC. We gathered a crapload of stuff and headed back to Pasadena. After a long and tiring packing job, we were all ready to go! I said goodbye to my new love and my Mom and we were off! Loaded down and tired, we started our journey to Davis, CA.

Nine hours later, we arrived in Davis and were greeted with a warm welcome from Michael. He graciously allowed Amanda and I to take a break at his place. We chatted for a while and then had a nice hour nap. We awoke and headed out once again. This stop-off allowed us to rest our tired asses and also made for a nice halfway-point in the trip to Reno and eventually on to Black Rock.

A short drive later, we arrived in Reno, Nevada. Still early morning, we stopped at Denny’s and had a rather disgusting breakfast. Next, we headed over to Big K to gather our water and extra supplies. Loading the water into the truck reminded us of how tired and spent we really were. With the sun up now, we began our last journey out the Playa. Still unsure if I would be able to get into the event, I was tired and nervous. The drive out there was really quick, though. Seeing as we were almost a week early for the event, the 447 was virtually empty.

We made our final stop in Gerlach, NV for gas. With a full tank and now ridiculously excited and awake, we headed down 447 for the final 10 miles before Black Rock City. When we arrived, we parked, got Amanda’s ticket from Will Call and found a gate shift-lead. We told them who we were and Pearl (gate-god) approved us for entry.

Once inside the city, we headed to our desired destination (6:30 & Amnesia), only to discover that this year they weren’t allowing early entries to pick their own camping spots. After some stupid negotiating, we decided upon 6:45 & Catharsis as our final resting place. We rested a while and then began setting up our home for the next 2 weeks.

Being there that early was fantastic! The city was so empty that you could see all of the major areas of the city right from camp. Those first few days were hot and the nights were remarkably warm. Tuesday night, we relaxed and had some much-needed sleep. Wednesday brought with it the yearly challenge of keeping yourself hydrated. We relaxed quite a bit, but also erected enough of the camp that we were nice and comfortable. That night, we headed to the gate for our very first shift. We got our laminates and to Amanda’s dismay we discovered that my laminate gave me full access to the Commissary and her’s did not. Well, with not much happening at the gate and a full crew of people there to help, Pearl asked Amanda and I to walk the gate road and tighten all the colored flags that designated the edges of the road. We did this and then hitched a ride to the commissary for dinner.

We were both tired and still a bit dehydrated, so we went to bed. Next day we relaxed during the day a lot and prepared ourselves for our shift that night. Again, we found that these early shifts were the easiest, as there were hardly and people coming through the gate. I got pretty drunk that night and had a fantastic time with the gate crew. These early days were all pretty much the same, relax during the heat of the day and work all night. Saturday was the day we were waiting for with great anticipation, as that was the day the rest of our camp was to arrive.

Saturday morning, Amanda and I sat in camp, watching the gate road. We were excited as hell to have our friends join us in our desolate desert adventure. Considering there was even more drama regarding who would be coming and not coming, we were anxious to get them there and start the party. Just when we were about to give up watching the road, the two cars turned onto 6:30 and we both leapt to our feet, got on our bikes and road out to meet them. We brought them into camp and both Asha and Chris threw themselves on the playa and rolled around with glee.

The event had officially began for us, at this point. Everything previous was just an effort to spend as much time on the playa as possible and make sure our camp was set-up.

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home

Posted by prick

I am back from Burning Man! The trip was so much fun. The group of people were perfect and I think everyone had a fantastic time. Didn’t see all the people I should have out there, but our camp was just so cool, I didn’t have any reason (other than work) to leave! I plan on writing up my full account when I have fully processed all the events of the past 2 weeks. There are many stories to be told and a fully packed DVD on the way, as well.

It is very sad, however, to return to the default world and find a whole portion of the country in ruins. We stayed up late in the motel in Reno, Sunday night, watching CNN. It’s even stranger that two different groups of people that I know (or used to know) were just in New Orleans right before the hurricane hit. I am very glad to know that they are all okay, even those that I used to know.

Finally, a little tease of what else is happening in my life, I have met someone truly special. For once, not someone at Burning Man. ;) No, I met Veronica before leaving for the playa. In returning from the most physically taxing and emotionally draining 2 weeks out of my year, I clearly see what I want from the rest of the year. So, Veronica is now my girlfriend and I am extremely happy. We are so completely comfortable with each other that it feels like we have known each other for years.

With all this in mind, I really feel like I can make some sense of my life now. Before this trip, I felt like I was all over the place with my social and professional life. Now, I have a clearer understanding of what my role should be in both aspects of my life. Due to Burning Man being a part of my life every year, September is my January and I wish you all a Happy New Year! I plan to make mine the very best yet.

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leaving tomorrow

Posted by prick

This year’s Burning Man is coming to a close. I have been here 11 days now and it feels like an eternity. Lots of stories to tell. Lots of weird coincidences. Just lots of fun in general.

Tonight is the burning of The Man. Closer to the event. Happy and sad that it’s finally here. Can’t wait to get home to my loved ones. More stories will come out as I make a full account of the trip when I get home.

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